Vintage Cake Design

Sculpting & Stenciling

Make a striking birdcage cake as you create antique textures, details and colors with Lindy Smith's carving, stenciling and hand-painting techniques.

Create an heirloom-inspired cake with guidance from international cake decorating sensation Lindy Smith. You'll make elegant cake boards, carve precise hexagonal cakes and a rounded cake dome, and cover it all seamlessly in fondant. Then, learn accessible techniques for painting an easy, exquisite background onto your cake, and using stencils and royal icing to make borders of detailed "bronze" motifs. Lindy will also teach you to create perfect lines of fondant for the structure and bars of your bird cage without piping. Plus, you'll hand-paint the birdcage structure for an alluring antique effect, and top it all off with a singing bird and a cake topper made from pastillage.

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Lesson 1. Introduction

Meet Lindy and get started prepping, covering and embossing your cake board.

14:04

Lesson 2. Creating & Stenciling the Large Baseboard

Lindy shows you how to make a stenciled and hand-painted collage on the large baseboard.

19:40

Lesson 3. Carving the Birdcage Cake

Get step-by-step instruction as you carve your cake. Learn to level and dowel the layers, align your tiers and shape the top of the birdcage.

13:52

Lesson 4. Covering the Cake with Buttercream & Fondant

Wondering how to get a flawless fondant covering on your birdcage's unique shape? Lindy shows you how with her simple two-step process.

13:24

Lesson 5. Painting & Stenciling the Cake

Paint your birdcage before applying beautiful stencils. Get an up-close view of the process and learn Lindy's time-saving tips.

24:02

Lesson 6. Adding the Cage’s Structure

Create the cage's lines and bars before learning how to expertly attach them to your cake.

11:23

Lesson 7. Making the Bird, Notes & Topper

See how Lindy builds the details that bring her birdcage to life. Mimic her embellishments or use her techniques to design and apply your own!

13:07

Lesson 8. The Finishing Touches

Pipe perfect beads, paint the birdcage and put together the cake's final details with Lindy's spot-on advice.

The instructor

Lindy Smith, Instructor of Vintage Cake Design

A prolific and high-profile cake artist in the U.K., Lindy Smith has been working in the sugarcraft industry for over 20 years. She teaches classes all over the world, has written 12 incredibly popular books, including her most recent, The Contemporary Cake Decorating Bible. Lindy's passion and talent for teaching are evident in her enthralling, easy-to-follow classes.

Ratings & reviews

Class rating

(5 reviews)

A Great Class!

by kay in perth on December 24, 2014

I was given lindys book as a gift in november and am delighted to now find that this class i bought is the same teacher, which is such a bonus. Excellent and easy to follow instructions.

I was given lindys book as a gift in november and am delighted to now find that this class i bought is the same teacher, which is such a bonus. Excellent and easy to follow instructions.

Awesome

by julie4884678 on December 9, 2014

At first I was not too sure about this class but I am so glad I did get it I would recommend this to everyone

At first I was not too sure about this class but I am so glad I did get it I would recommend this to everyone

Inspirational

by Gailzy on August 24, 2014

Lindys cakes and ideas are inspirational

Lindys cakes and ideas are inspirational

Lovely!

by CDodd12 on October 12, 2013

An amazing class! She is a lovely person and an amazing teacher! Really loved the painting on the cake! Can't wait to try making a birdcage cake!

An amazing class! She is a lovely person and an amazing teacher! Really loved the painting on the cake! Can't wait to try making a birdcage cake!

Very informative

by paullacoe5675936 on January 31, 2015

Good, very informative!

Good, very informative!

Materials

What materials are used in this class?

Four 8" (20 cm) round cakes

Gold-colored candle stick or other prop to hold cake

10" (25.5 cm) round cake drum

15" (38 cm) round cake drum

Two 7" (18 cm) side-to-side hexagonal or 7" (18 cm) round hardboards

6" (15 cm) side-to-side hexagonal or 6" (15 cm) round hardboard

Fondant (sugarpaste)

Edible luster dusts

Paste colors

Royal icing

Pastillage (recipe included)

Sugar glue

Confectioners’ glaze

Paintbrushes and dusting brushes

Small musical notes (part of the DiscoDancer set from Patchwork Cutters)